News

In the main event of Ring of Combat XXXII tonight at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, John Cholish (5-1) of Team Renzo Gracie faced off against Wai Kru Boston’s Rich Moskowitz (10-6) for the vacant Ring of Combat Lightweight Title. The end result of that was a highly entertaining championship fight, with Cholish eventually emerging victorious after forcing Moskowitz to tap in the third round due to an inverted triangle choke.

From its onset, the action in this match started very quickly, with Cholish first unleashing some technical Jiu-Jitsu and then scoring the first takedown of the affair. The tone then switched to grappling with Cholish seeking an opening to gain an early advantage, but the duo returned to the stand-up position when neither was able to take the upper hand. Both men began to work kicks before Moskowitz used a slip by Cholish to garner ground control. He then tried to position himself into the full mount, but Cholish showed his Gracie background by seeking submission maneuvers from the bottom. Moskowitz seemed to have the better of the grappling on the floor, but his opponent was not allowing him much to capitalize upon. Cholish then took the closed guard from the bottom, pursuing any limb that Moskowitz made available as he tried to strike from the top. When the bell concluded the opening round, the two fighters were still engulfed in a heated ground exchange.

The second frame quickly went from a stand-up setting back into the grapple, and Cholish worked himself into an advantageous position on the floor before Moskowitz reversed and slid into side control. He began firing off some knees from that location, but Cholish showed impressive flexibility as he began to force his opponent into some vulnerable positions. He was nearly able to crank on an arm bar before Moskowitz powered himself loose, but Cholish used that opening to move into back control. He began to throw some powerful crosses from behind and then quickly rolled the action back to the floor before falling into a north-south cradle. He again threw some strong strikes to an exposed Moskowitz, riding out the round with a flurry of hard strikes.

Likely even on the score cards, both competitors looked to turn up the pace in the third round. After a quick tap of the gloves, a stand-up exchange resulted in a clinch on the side of the cage. Catching Moskowitz slightly off balance, Cholish dropped his opposition to the canvas and rolled into side control. After the Gracie product shot off some knees, the two fighters rolled the advantage back-and-forth until they both stood back up. Cholish then threw a superman punch and worked Maskowitz into a clinch, where he began to fire off some Muay Thai knee blows. After another nice exchange, they returned to the clinch when Cholish rolled into back control in the center of the cage. From there he maneuvered himself into an inverted triangle choke and began to throw some big left hands. Unable to shake loose, Moskowitz was finally forced to tap out.

The official time of the submission was 3:05 of the third round, resulting in the crowning of Cholish as the new Ring of Combat Lightweight Champion.